Squib
by Serinity46
Summary: For the first time since she was 11, the thought of the Wizarding World actually made Allison Cameron happy. CameronChase. Oneshot.


There was something the Allison Cameron had never told anyone at Princeton Plainsborough…she was a squib. That's right, a Muggle born into a family of witches and wizards. Her childhood had been a fill with the Wizarding World; traveling by floo powder, going to Quidditch Matches, hearing The Weird Sisters and Celestina Warbeck on the wireless, all of that…which all changed when, nomatter how much she'd tried to do magic like her family could, she just couldn't, and the year surrounding her 11th birthday had come and gone without her receiving her letter.

She'd brought a bit of shame to her parents and, though they rarely let it show, she could tell. They were purebloods and, to some of her relatives, having a squib in the family was akin to, well…she couldn't think of what, but either way, their detest was known. She'd loved that magical word, but she was no longer part of it…there was no longer the "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll show soon" but now glowers from aunts, uncles, and cousins as if she were less than human. So, after nearly three years of this distaste and disappointment, she'd had enough. Following middle school, she'd gotten herself into a boarding school a few states away from home, and began to embark on becoming a doctor in a completely Muggle world, where she'd soon after work for House, quit, work for him again, quit again for another position in the hospital, marry Robert Chase, and have a daughter.

Being a squib was something she'd completely pushed aside in her new Muggle life. It rarely came up in anything she did, so she didn't bother with it. She was fine being away from the Wizarding World now, if it didn't want her, she certainly didn't need it to do well in what she wanted to do. And, until one morning late in June, it stayed this way.

That morning, Chase stood in their kitchen, leafing through the mail. Newspaper, advertisement, phone bill, another advertisement for a pizza place…he paused. In between the Panago ad and a Children's Hospital Home Lottery flyer, there was an unusual envelope, addressed in bright blue ink to one Whitney A. Chase, 501 Front Street, Princeton NJ. In the corner was a crest of some sort, also in blue, which displayed a black cat atop a broomstick.

"What the hell is 'Salem Witches Academy'?" Chase wondered aloud to himself, putting the letter for his daughter aside on the counter for her.

Upon hearing this, Allison froze. She'd been thirteen the last time she heard anyone say those three words…the one school she'd never gotten into…why was her Muggle husband saying them?

"It's a school." Allison managed to say numbly, looking blankly as if she'd just seen a ghost.

"I thought Whitney was already _in_ a school for the fall, a good school, Princeton Middle School…?" Chase asked her, puzzeledly.

Allison nodded, then walked over to the counter, spotting the envelope containing the letter which she'd never received. It was for her daughter…that made sense, Whitney just turned 11 two months ago…her daughter, the child of a squib and a Muggle…

"It's a school for magic," Allison said, coming out with it. It took a second to set in, but she was happy about this, Whitney would have the life she never could. "Our daughter's a witch."

"A what? You mean, like…she's Wiccan now?" Chase asked, confused as ever. If she wanted to be Wiccan, he was fine with it, but sending her off to a special school for it seemed a bit much.

"No, Chase, a proper witch, like in movies. Real magic powers." Allison said, completely serious. "It's not a religion, it's actually, there is a wizarding world out there."

"You're putting me on…so what are you, a witch also?" He asked her, thinking of those shows and movies where the wife and child had magical powers and the husband didn't. "Go on, zap up a rabbit or something." He egged on, before catching that that her face fell at the mention of this.

"I can't, I'm a _squib_," Allison sighed, years worth of memories flooding painfully back. "My parents, and my whole family were witches and wizards, but I'm not. I can't do any more magic than, well, you can."

"You actually expect me to believe this though, witches and magical schools, it all sounds so…" Chase said, searching for the right word.

"So _what_?" Allison began, testily. "Like I'm making it up? Like it's all some big prank? For God's sake, Chase, we _had a wizard for a patient last year_! Yeah, that old bald guy, except for I'm the only one who noticed that his symptoms were magical, and you want to know why I knew that? Because had I gotten a letter like that rest of my damned family, had I actually been a witch and gone to Salem, I wanted to, since I was about, oh…_seven_, become a Healer." She was practically exploding on him about this at this point. "And then I had to go all the way to New York to get the cure, to a street I haven't been to in _over two fucking decades_, and practically had to beg the guy selling it to take my Muggle money, and then, and _then _I had to come back here to Princeton Plainsborough and lie about it and come up with some believable Muggle cause for it! And you think I'm just trying to pull one over on you with the letter and all…don't you _dare_, Chase, _don't you dare_…"

Tears of fury were streaming down her face as she unloaded on him. She'd stopped, and was visibly shaking, a few hot tears still running across her face and down her neck onto her chest as she tore her gaze away from him and stared at the floor.

"I was going to say surprising." Chase said, dully in shock at all of this, especially about Allison. He pulled her close to him, comfortingly enveloping her as she cried silently against him for a moment. "Weirder things have happened, and I'm willing the believe this."

Allison looked up at him, no longer in tears, though her face was wet and with runs of black dampening around her eyes.

"She's going to get a wand." Allison said, with a touch of pride and happiness in her voice as she brushed her hand against her tear-stained face.

"She's going to be great." Chase, his arms still around her, smiled at Allison.

"I know." Allison smiled, content in his arms, and a bit exited for Whitney, and all of the wonderful things that she knew their daughter would be able to experience. For the first time since she was 11, the thought of the Wizarding World actually made Allison Cameron happy.


End file.
